Seeing the Round Corners

December 5, 2016

As we brace for our first Artic air blast, a release from a county emergency manager in North Dakota came to mind. As the national news carries the continuing protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline, it shows Americans across this country the way American Indians lived and survived each winter. The Army Corps of Engineers announced today it will not issue a permit needed to complete the pipeline.

The Minot Daily News carried this release from a county emergency manager in Minot, North Dakota dated on or about December 29, 2010.

WEATHER BULLETIN! Up here in the Northern part of North Dakota, we just recovered from a Historic event – may I even say a “Weather Event” of “Biblical Proportions” – with a historic blizzard of up to 25’ of snow and winds up to 50 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10’s of thousands.

Obama did not come.

FEMA did nothing.

No one howled for the government.

No one blamed the government.

No one even uttered an expletive on TV.

Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.

Our Mayors did not blame Obama or anyone else.

Our Governor did not blame Obama or anyone else either.

CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit or even report on this Category 5 snow storm.

Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.

No one asked for a FEMA trailer house.

No one looted.

Nobody, I mean nobody, demanded the government do something.

Nobody expected the government to do anything either.

No Larry King, No Bill O’Reilly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.

No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Streisand, No Brad Pitts, No Hollywood types to be found.

Nope, we just melted snow for water.

Sent out caravans of SUV’s to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.

The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn’t ask for a penny.

Local restaurants made food and the police and fire department delivered it to the snow-bound families.

Families took in the stranded people – total strangers.

We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.

We put on extra layers of clothes, because up here it is “Work or Die.”

We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for “sitting at home” checks.

Even though a Category 5 blizzard of this scale is not usual, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

The county emergency manager ended his release with this: The world does not owe you a living!